In 2011 Turkey’s ruling conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, won a third consecutive victory in general elections in June, raising its share of the poll to 50% and winning 326 seats in the 550-member single-chamber legislature. It was followed by the centre-left Republican People’s Party (CHP), under its new leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, with 135 seats, and Devlet Bahceli’s far-right Nationalist Action Party (MHP) with 53 seats. Kurdish nationalists, who stood as independents to circumvent a rule dictating that parties had to win 10% of the national poll to qualify for representation in the parliament, improved their position as candidates sponsored by their Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) won 36 seats. Subsequently, 29 independents rejoined BDP. After the elections the CHP and Kurdish nationalists boycotted the parliament to protest the court’s decision to disqualify several newly elected candidates on the basis of their having been charged with political offenses. Both parties had ended their boycott by October 1, when the parliament embarked on the new legislative program that it had endorsed on July 13. The government gave priority to the drafting of a new and more liberal constitution, and all parties represented in the parliament assigned members to a committee formed for the purpose.

Strengthened by the election results, the AKP proceeded to break the political power of the armed forces, which had traditionally seen themselves as guardians of the secularist regime. On July 29 Chief of the General Staff Gen. Isik Kosaner and the commanders of the three services resigned to protest the detention of serving and retired senior officers on charges of having plotted to overthrow the government. The resignations did not prevent further arrests in a slow-moving series of trials, which also led to the detention of two prominent investigative journalists, a former police chief, and other civilians. The prolonged detention of government opponents, sometimes on unspecified charges, was criticized in the report released by the European Commission in October on Turkey’s progress toward meeting European Union membership criteria. The report commended, however, the steps taken by Erdogan’s government to curb the political power of the military.

The armed militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization in the EU and the U.S., reduced the scope of their attacks in the preelectoral period. They ended their poorly observed unilateral truce, however, when the government failed to deal with their demands for Kurdish as a language of instruction in schools and for autonomy for Kurdish-majority provinces in southeastern Turkey. In retaliation for the killing of 13 soldiers on July 14 and of another 24 on October 19, the Turkish air force launched air strikes against the PKK’s base in the mountains of northern Iraq. In October the parliament extended by a year the authority of the government to employ armed forces outside the country’s borders. Also in October Turkey assumed command of the NATO assistance and stabilization force in Afghanistan for another year. In September Turkey agreed to host NATO radar installations as part of an antimissile shield.

Turkey continued to disagree with U.S. policy toward Israel. Following the publication of the Palmer report on the killing of nine Turkish activists by Israeli commandos enforcing the blockade of Gaza, Turkey downgraded its diplomatic relations and ended military procurement and defense cooperation with Israel, while preserving nondefense trade links. Speaking at the UN, Prime Minister Erdogan advocated the immediate recognition of Palestinian statehood. In September Erdogan visited Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya to declare his support for their new regimes. Previously close relations with Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad approached a breaking point as Turkey offered support to opponents of his regime.

Erdogan’s popularity was underpinned by strong growth in the economy. In the first half of the year, GDP grew by 10%. By the end of September, exports had increased by 21% and imports by 36%, while consumer price inflation dropped from 8.6% in December 2010 to 7.9% by the end of October 2011. The reliance of the economy on the continued inflow of foreign funds affected market confidence, however, and between January 1 and November 9, the index of the Istanbul stock exchange dropped by 15%.

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